More drill scrutiny urged as Australia gets report

This image from video provided by BP PLC early Friday morning, June 18, 2010 shows oil continuing to gush millions of gallons a day, from the broken wellhead, at the site of the Deepwater Horizon oil well in the Gulf of Mexico. (AP Photo/BP PLC) NO SALES
— AP

This image from video provided by BP PLC early Friday morning, June 18, 2010 shows oil continuing to gush millions of gallons a day, from the broken wellhead, at the site of the Deepwater Horizon oil well in the Gulf of Mexico. (AP Photo/BP PLC) NO SALES
/ AP

Tina Hunter, an expert on energy law at Australia's Bond University who followed the Australian hearing, said Halliburton should be held responsible for incorrectly signing off on the West Atlas well shoe as being cemented properly.

"Both cases have similarities in that we have these oil spills that occur and then there doesn't seem to be any contingency planning to stop the spill at its source," Hunter said.

Halliburton official Tommy Roth told a Louisiana state Senate hearing on Thursday that a test needed to determine whether the Deepwater Horizon well had been properly sealed with cement was not done on the day it exploded.